A monster most every weekday. Three adventure seeds a post.
Because Pathfinder and 3.5 are more fun than work.
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Friday, April 24, 2015

Kostchtchie

Kostchtchie, the Deathless Frost, does not get the love he
deserves.As fantasy fans, we have
invested decades in the exploits of Demogorgon (including the Savage Tide
Adventure Path); we’ve watched Vecna go from lich to god; we saw Orcus’s resurrection
rock the planes themselves; and don't even get me started on Lolth.Yet when the final issue of Dragon printed a list of D&D’s top
villains, Kostchtchie was nowhere in sight.(You know who was? A kobold with
a shotgun.Instead of the demon lord of
frost giants!)

To be fair, Kostchtchie is usually painted as a brute and
even a fool, particularly as a) he was tricked into the very shape of the frost
giants he once hated and b) he lost a chunk of his soul to Baba Yaga.But still, this is a warrior whose answer to
matricide was patricide.This is a
champion who grew powerful enough to simply demand
immortality.This is a survivor who, at
the moment of his greatest humiliation and failure—in the Pathfinder version of
the story at least—went to the Abyss
to hide.Where he become a demon.And then a demon lord.A demon lord who has managed to subvert the worship
of nearly the entire frost giant race.

So he may be a brute by divine standards…but you puny
mortals owe him some respect.(Lord knows
that at Int 25 and Wis 30, he’s still smarter than me, and I’m not going to
mock a guy with Str 48 and a warhammer that can hit AC 73.)

There are hundreds of adventures buried in that
backstory.A Kostchtchie-focused
campaign might even end up following his trail to near-godhood, from his first
murder to his bargain with Baba Yaga to his Abyssal awakening and beyond.In fact, retrieving the lost shard of Kostchtchie’s
soul or stopping him from actually reaching true divine status would not be a
shabby adventure path by any means.

Some victims never
stop trying to win the love of their abuser.Bullied her entire childhood for being
female, the frost giant Anyag Karksdottir was determined to prove herself
worthy of Kostchtchie.When only silence
answer the prayers of this would-be cleric, she turned to witchcraft instead,
invoking Kostchtchie’s name but following the whispers of her dark patron.Now at the apex of her power, she seeks to
create the Gelid Gate, a permanent portal to Kostchtchie’s realm so that he may
send his giants, remorhazes, leucrottas, and ice linnorms to ravage the
world.If adventurers time their
intervention wrong, they will have to fight Anyag, a Kostchtchie outraged at
this female’s intrusion, and the faceless dark power who has been pulling
Anyag’s strings—perhaps all at once.

Mythic adventurers
find themselves locked in a court battle—on another plane of existence,
against Baba Yaga herself.No matter
which way the jury seems to be leaning, Baba Yaga eventually concludes the
proceedings by demanding trial by combat.Her champion is none other than Kostchtchie himself, so eager at the
chance to face the hated witch that he will even submit to her humiliating
summons.

Three great powers of
Air guard an ever-floating island.Amid the treasures there is a plain cold iron needle inside a jeweled egg
inside a live duck inside a hare figurine of wondrous power inside an animated iron chest.In the head of the needle sits Kostchtchie’s
soul.Disturbing it will summon a portion
of Kostchtchie, as his disembodied arm manifests and begins searching for the
lost shard—and crushing those who interfere.Anyone foolish enough to attempt to keep the soul shard will eventually
have to fight the fully manifested demon lord, possibly months or even years
down the road.

—Pathfinder Bestiary 4
48–49

There’s no way on Earth (or Oerth, or Golarion) I could
reference every source where Kostchtchie has appeared.But his Wikipedia page has a thorough
rundown.For the one-stop D&D take
on him, James Jacobs’s “The Demonicon of Iggwilv: Kostchtchie” from Dragon #345 is the definitive source…and
since James Jacobs is also one of Golarion’s architects, Pathfinder players can
pretty much feel comfortable using that version except where it explicitly
conflicts with Bestiary 4.

It’s also worth going back and finding out more about Kostchtchie’s
inspiration, Koschei the Deathless.The
third adventure seed draws from those tales.

Thanks for the huge response to yesterday’s post.I should have mentioned that’s a Jason Nelson
monster.

Hey, I’ve been sitting on this question from justavulcan for
days now:

Less
a question about monsters, and more a question about Razor
Coast: as a fan of worldbuilding and
innovative takes on Pathfinder/D&D conventions, how would you rate Razor
Coast? I seem to remember you mentioning
picking it up despite the steep cover price, and was contemplating doing the
same.

Sadly, I’m really no further into Razor Coast than I was the last time we talked about it in this
space.The very things that make it
worth picking up (it’s a monumental and pretty gorgeous book) also mean that
it’s low on my to-read pile, since I’m not going to just toss it in my bag to
read during lunch.And with a full-time
job, personal life stuff, and a daily blog, my leisure reading time is short and
precious.(Seriously, if you like to
read, never ever start a daily blog.Also stay in grad school.)

So I really can't justify recommending a $100 book I haven't
read cover-to-cover myself.(I’m very
conscious of the fact that I’m a single, childless, fully employed guy; I get
to be a lot lazier with my money than most folks.)That said, I’ve flipped through enough of it
I can say this:

Do you like pirates and weresharks?If so, this is your book.If that cover image by Wayne Reynolds is
exactly what you want in your campaign, get this book.

Are you a gazetteer/travelogue fan?Razor
Coast is heavily tied to Port Shaw and its environs.So if you’re looking to read about/brainstorm
adventures around a wide range of islands and antagonists, you’re probably
better off just going for Isles of the
Shackles.

Though this book has a nice appendix and some fun feats and
ecologies, it’s primarily a giant supermodule. Do you have a group ready to run
adventures for?Get this book.If you’re between groups and just looking for
a read, this can be a lot lower on your list.

I know that’s not the most helpful answer, but it’s the best
I have at the moment.And as I mentioned
last time, a safer investment might be Razor
Coast: Heart of the Razor.You get
four adventures for $40 (or $20 for just the PDF), which is perfectly
reasonable.It comes excellently
reviewed, and if you like it, you can feel safe jumping into Razor Coast’s $100 waters.

By the way, I’ve also got Freeport: City of Adventure coming in the next few weeks.Given that you're a pirate fan, I’ll try to
deliver a tentative verdict on that as well.Have a great weekend!

By the way, please forgive the occasional typos. I am aware of them, but disagreements between MS Word and the Blogger template make my entries nearly impossible to edit once posted. I blame gremlins. You can find a more polished version of this blog over on Tumblr.